NF Just viewed CW-era movie "The Santa Fe Trail"...

Non-Fiction
This is probably at the top of my terrible historic movie list. It is pure fantasy . I understand the need for a movie to be entertaining , but when I see a movie like this I think the writers and producers think the intended audience is too ignorant to know the difference . It's kind of like people looking for Confederate gold in Lake Michigan . .
 
So... has anyone figured out why it was called the "Santa Fe Trail". I remember watching it and wondering at the end. I may go back and watch it again, if just to watch Raymond Massey.

Massey came from Toronto, Canada and belonged to the prestigious family who produced Massey-Harris-Fergason tractors and equipment. His brother, Vincent Massey, was Governor General of Canada at one point. The family was much known in Toronto for their philanthropy, including building Massey Hall, which was the cultural equivilent of Canrnegie Hall in the day.

Raymond Massey played Abraham Lincoln in "Abe Lincoln in Illinois", for those who are looking for more entertainment.
Edit: Please ignore the written commentary at the beginning and end of this clip. I didn't see it until after posting! Sorry about that. I am now looking for another clip.
 
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Historical accuracy be damned, Michael Curtiz (and Warner's editors) did a masterful job with the attack on Brown's fort and IMO it's the second best action sequence in Hollywood history, the first being Curtiz's Charge of the Light Brigade.

Yes, Massey on the scaffold is sublime.
 
Massey came from Toronto, Canada and belonged to the prestigious family who produced Massey-Harris-Fergason tractors and equipment. His brother, Vincent Massey, was Governor General of Canada at one point. The family was much known in Toronto for their philanthropy, including building Massey Hall, which was the cultural equivilent of Canrnegie Hall in the day.

Massey's daughter Anna was an actress and had a part in the lurid masterpiece that ruined Michael Powell's career, Peeping Tom.

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As I recall, Errol Flynn also played Custer His dual roles as Civil war figures were less successful than Stephen Lang's portrayal of Pickett and Jackson. He was so good that many didn't not even realize that both parts were played by Lang.
Or you can just watch the tailer if you want a good laugh!
 
Another Hollywood fantasy piece , but not as bad as Santa Fe Trail . The charge of the Michigan cavalry at Gettysburg with those same hills as seen in nearly every TV western was not so great . I remember something about creamed Bermuda onions and I think Anthony Quinn played Sitting Bull (?) . As I recall there was some convoluted plot where GAC was actually trying to save the Indians . I don't mind Hollywood taking poetic license with reality to be entertaining , but not this . The Horse Soldiers is based on Grierson's raid and it plays loose with the facts but it's a good movie. The First Michigan certainly wasn't there , but it was entertaining and it didn't call john Wayne's character "Grierson."I can put up with post war weapons and uniforms and some plot twists like in The Horse Soldiers , but I don't like historical fantasy...…like Santa Fe trail or the movie JFK.
 
Didnt Raymond Massey have a bit piece as Lincoln in "How The West Was "?

Yes, in the section of the movie directed by John Ford, the Civil War part. Note that the music played in the short Lincoln scene is the Anne Rutledge theme written by Alfred Newman for Ford's Young Mr. Lincoln. Newman also wrote the score for How The West Was Won.
 
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Hollywood was about making money and stuff for entertainment, not education. It's no different today and if you thought 300 was bad, 300 Rise of Empire was a real stomach turner. I just saw the Audie Murphy/Bill Mauldin version of Stephen Crane's Red Badge of Courage. From what I recall of the book, it's pretty accurate. Now, the equipment was all wrong though.
 
I just saw the Audie Murphy/Bill Mauldin version of Stephen Crane's Red Badge of Courage. From what I recall of the book, it's pretty accurate. Now, the equipment was all wrong though.

I need to watch that again, last time I saw it was in school. My main memory is of one shot of the column stopping and the guy in the front having a Confederate Richmond rifle-musket as a Union soldier of course. I mainly seem to remember that, (I think it was the Audie Murphey rendition of the book), and my being amused that of all muskets to actually use in the movie and it'd be a Richmond.
 
Didn't John Boy Walton star in the re-make of that one??? I know he and Ernest Borgnine co-starred in the re-make of "All Quiet on the Western Front."
 
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